


Five Men Olenna Might Have Married

by thegirl



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: 5 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Multi, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 19:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4448678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirl/pseuds/thegirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: 5 things - Olenna marrying into five different houses and having to contend with five different husbands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Men Olenna Might Have Married

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Пять мужчин, за которых Оленна могла бы выйти замуж](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6314740) by [Vemoro](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vemoro/pseuds/Vemoro)



> Go check me out on tumblr at mhysaa.tumblr.com :)

     i. Florent

Her new husband doesn’t make her think they are on opposite sides of the marriage, per se - it is as if he is not on any side at all. He is blithe, boring and agreeable. All things Olenna despises.

But she is a woman, and he is her husband, and it appears they are stuck together.

The one thing he does seem halfway proficient at is bedding her - every awkward moment in the day is translated into him rutting into her with gusto at that night, taking out his frustration on her cunt.

She’ll get with child soon, she's sure, and once she gives him an heir and a spare, there will be little need for her husband anymore.

     ii. Stark

Rickard Stark is a man shaped by the lands he rules - harsh and cold. Olenna searches for a way into his heart, first, like her septa told her, but soon she begins to think he doesn’t have one.

Then, she tries for his affections like the cook recommended - ordering his favourite foods, sewing up his shirts, trying to make a pathway for her to get into first his good graces, then his confidence.

But nothing seems to work.

In the end, she had to resort to his sexual needs, something even the North did not manage to rip out of him - coming to him on warm nights, cold nights, nights when she wants nothing less than to venture into her cold husband’s bed. Still, nothing seems to move him - it is as if he wants nothing from her, wants to give nothing to her. She thinks he would be content if he had no wife at all, she is an afterthought to him at best.

“What do you want?” she finally asks him, after their nightly ritual of hesitant sex, where he barely even looks at her body although she knows she is beautiful.

A puzzled look crosses his face, “What do I... want?” Olenna purses her lips and sits up, “You want something. What? I know you asked to marry me, but I don’t know what you want from me or this marriage, although Seven knows I’ve tried giving you all the things a husband usually desires from his lady wife. Tell me what you want, husband.”

Rickard breathes, before sitting up himself and meeting her eyes, and it depresses her to realize this is the first time they’ve engaged in months, “I am Lord Stark.” He begins slowly, carefully picking his words, “My family has ruled these lands for eight thousand years, and we are now so firmly in power that there is nothing else to do.” He swallows, haltingly. “I want to make the North one with the other kingdoms. I want to be as respected as the other Great Lords of the land, not just some stranger presiding over a wasteland. I want to have sway in the ruling of the realm. I want to make my children good matches, and bring the comforts of the South to my country. I want- I want more than any man should.”

Olenna’s smile had widened throughout his speech until she looked as smug as a kitchen cat, “Oh, my dear husband. I understand very well.” In fact, it was the first time Olenna had completely understood her husband.

Ambition. She shrugs, and kisses him. Marriages had been built on less.

     iii. Arryn

Jon Arryn and Olenna first meet one another on their wedding day.

She has to admit he’d pleased her aesthetically at first glance - his sandy blonde hair was neatly combed, his smile was white and his back was as straight as a lance. But, despite this initial attraction, their marriage is not a happy one.

They are complete opposites, and even as Olenna’s mother tells her that they will have fine, strong children, they scream at one another behind closed doors, arguments arising over the mildest of disagreements. He just- he rubs her the wrong way, and she him - she thinks him a pretty picture with no substance, too kind too young, and he is repelled by her black humour and bold advances at the beginning of their marriage, with sours the rest of it.

Yet, Olenna does her duty.

She falls pregnant in the second year of their marriage, and announces it the moment it is confirmed by the maester to stop her husband coming to her rooms for the unsatisfying, unfulfilling, uncomfortable couplings. The baby comes in the eighth month, too early, and is born too quickly - Olenna screams and screams and gives birth to a dead baby girl. Jon Arryn is told that his wife is losing too much blood, and won’t survive the day, but can’t think of anything they have to say to one another, so stays away.

When he hears she is dead, he has one terrible moment of relief, and then feels remorse over the emotion for the rest of his days.

     iv. Tully

“I didn’t want to marry you,” her new husband tells her on their wedding night.

Olenna continues to remove her clothes as if she hadn’t heard, laying her corset next to her stockings, and begins to undo her skirt.

“Never did want to marry,” Brynden continues, trying to get some kind of rise out of his new wife, and wonders despairingly for a moment if Hoster has had him married to a simpleton, “Not ever.”

“And yet,” Olenna speaks for the first time, the contempt in her voice barely hidden, “Here we are, husband and wife.”

Brynden swallowed. “Aye. What I mean to say, my lady, is that I won’t be a good husband to you-”

Olenna laughs at his statement, as she lays down the jewels she’d been gifted down on the dressing table. “And you think I care?” Brynden’s eyes bulge out of their sockets, wondering if he had misheard. For the first time, she faces him full on and any words he had became lodged firmly in his throat at the sight.

“We are going to have a child,” Olenna tells him as she stalks to where he has lain himself out on the bed, “I am going to stay in Riverrun, and raise said child. You need to give me a child, that is all, and then please do go, be as bad a husband as you desire. Go gallivant around Westeros, but you will do right by your wife first, ser.”

Unsurprisingly, he did.

      v. Targaryen

Olenna is made aware of her betrothed’s unfortunate preferences many years before they are wed. Daeron is not a jealous man - he tells her he won’t force her into a union that will not bear fruit nor love, and never can. He even offers to call it off himself if she so wishes, and act as if breaking the engagement was his idea, although his father would be furious as yet another failed betrothal and it would be better for him to have her as a shield against gossips, as well as giving her family leverage over the crown.

It is this which makes up her mind: she has seen the other lords of the realm, and none of them are men she sees her growing to love, or even like. Between her and Daeron, there is a deep, strong friendship, and he would not begrudge her lovers as other husbands would, as he would have ones of his own.

“But Daeron,” she replies to his offer, smiling at how nervous he looks, “Princess Olenna has the most wonderful ring to it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave kudos and comments if you enjoyed this fic!


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